As a result of the growing environmental awareness (e.g., increased pollution, increasing demand for biodegradable materials, material need for CO2 neutrality and low greenhouse gas emissions, new environmental laws and regulations), manufacturers and scientists are keen to study novel environmental friendly materials. Over the last decade intensive research and development has been carried out in order to develop powerful composites using natural fibers, offering good biodegradability and sustainability.
A biodegradable material will slowly undergo biodegradation by surrounding microorganisms, bacteria, and exposure to the elements and hence could provide solutions to end-of-life issues after service life. Nowadays, the fibers resulting from wood, animals, leaves, grasses and other natural sources are commonly used as reinforcement in composites used for various applications, like automotive (interior and exterior), building, ship, packaging etc., due to their unusual properties compared to other synthetic fibers.
Advances in manufacturing techniques in natural fiber-reinforced composites have allowed the car industry to utilize these composites in interior trimmings. Besides the environmental benefits, compared to glass fiber composites, the natural fiber reinforced composites with the equivalent performances have higher fiber content, resulting in less pollution from synthetic polymer matrix, and much lighter weight, reducing the amount of driving fuel in automotive applications.